The Many Cons of Mr. Wonderful

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0:04. . 48 Hours. We take you there. . . Deanna thought Matt Matthews was the man of her dream. . He was really sort of this knight in shining armor. But so did Diane. And I became Diane Matthews. And Carrie. And dozens of other women. Susan Spencer reports. What did you find out later? That he probably had seven or eight marriages before me. He stole their hearts. Everybody thought he was just Mr. Wonderful. Then he stole their money. He took everything I had. He may have conned hundreds of victims. Eight or nine thousand dollars. Nineteen hundred dollars. Over twenty thousand dollars. How did he do it?

0:44What did he tell you about his marital status? That he had never been married. Never found the right woman. This guy's good. He knows how to get in. And once he gets in, he can do a lot of damage. You won't believe the stories he told. He told me that he was a race car driver. He delivered approximately 53 babies. He had worked for the Pittsburgh Steelers as a football player. And there's more. We also claim to be a pilot, a Navy SEAL, and a paramedic. Now, are these women about to get revenge? I want to nail them. Mr. Wonderful.

1:38Most people probably think they can spot a con man coming from a mile away. But what if the con artist in question is so smooth, so irresistible, so good at what he does that you never have a chance to even realize that you're being taken for a ride and your money. How could any man be so cold, so calculating, not to mention so charming, that he could fool dozens of women, maybe more, leading all of them down a path to heartache? The escapades of one all-too-accomplished con man, one who has spent his entire adult life shattering lives, financially and emotionally. We've spent a year uncovering his intricate web of lies.

2:26You'll be amazed at the stories he told and got away with. But now, after so much deception, will some of his unsuspecting victims finally get a measure of revenge? Susan Spencer takes you on the trail of tears left by a man who so many women once believed was Mr. Wonderful.

2:56He has the ability to make you think you are the most special woman in the world. He made me feel very special. Like you were the only woman on earth? Absolutely. He would just sit there and listen to you and always respond with exactly what you wanted to hear. When you listen to the women who have loved him, it's clear. Matt Matthews can turn on the charm. Have you ever met anybody as attentive as he was? Never. Unfortunately, these women learned too late that this Prince Charming has a dark side. His charm, all part of a calculated act. Matt's a sociopath. He's a pathological liar. He's a sick man.

3:39Designed to separate them from their money, no matter what the consequences. He tears you up into little bitty pieces, and then you feel like you're just nothing. This man has really, really hurt a lot of people. That's why a lot of people have been waiting a long time to see this. Matt Matthews in court in Orange County, California, where he'll face charges for allegedly conning eight of his girlfriends. He told me that he was a battalion chief with the California Department of Forestry. Out of tens of thousands of dollars. He told me he had been an Indy 500 driver. And had been a Navy SEAL. He delivered approximately 53 babies.

4:23Using elaborate scams. He told me that he was in financial trouble. He told me that he loved me. You loved him? Yes. 61-year-old Matt Matthews is no run-of-the-mill Romeo, but a career con artist with an incredible history. He's been married at least 11 times, and prosecutors say he's probably scammed hundreds of people. He had just finished serving his third jail term for theft by fraud when he set up shop here in an Ocean View home in the Southern California community of Monarch Summit. We love it here. We really love it here. It's so quiet. His neighbor, Patty Tiernan... This is Matt's house here, by the way.

5:03was as impressed as anyone when Matthews first moved in. Matt was hired to remodel my home. And how had you heard about him in the first place? Just in the neighborhood. He was the neighborhood golden boy. He did everybody's home. Everybody thought he was just Mr. Wonderful. They just thought he could do anything. So he was very popular. Oh, they were introducing him to their daughters. It was through one of the neighbors that Deanna Petrucco, a divorced mother of two, met Matthews on a blind date. Conversation was extremely easy with this man. It was like I had known him a long time. What kind of courtship was this?

5:39Very fast. He seemed to want to see me all the time. He was really sort of this knight in shiny armor. And that's not all he was. He claimed to be a battalion chief with the California State Department of Forestry. He had a red truck with a license plate that read, I rescue for you. He told me that he was a race car driver and that he had raced professionally at the Indy 500. He also claimed to be a pilot, a Navy SEAL, an aerial skier, and a paramedic. Deanna was also impressed... Chicken cutlets, mashed potatoes... ...by the attention he paid to her children. I am very family-oriented. Oh, I've got the floor now?

6:20Thank you. And he always would take us out as a family, and it was really nice. Very healthy for him. The only thing that really did kind of throw me for a loop is about, I believe after a month after seeing him, he said he wanted to marry me. A month after? A month, yes. And I said, you know, madam, that's quite flattering. I said, but you don't know me, and I sure as heck don't know you. What did he say to that? He says, well, you're just the type of person I want. And if there's anybody who should have recognized a bad investment... Hi, everybody. It's Deanna. We have our debit and credit side.

6:53She teaches business and accounting courses. Okay, and what's cash? It's an asset. He was saying that he was having some trouble getting money from some customers in his construction business. So Deanna allowed her then-boyfriend to use her credit to purchase a BMW car and motorcycle. He had also told me that his previous wife had really taken him to the cleaners, and that's why he didn't like credit cards. And then came the loans. I lent him some money for a dental implant, and the other was to pay off his truck. The grand total, well over$20 ,000. And the effect of cash going down is obviously a negative.

7:32Did you really think he was going to pay you back? In my heart, I really wanted to believe it, but my mind was saying, you know, Deanna, I don't think this guy is going to do what he says he's going to do. And then I'd say, but look at who his friends are. Look at who he's surrounded by. Look at who likes him. Look at this. Look at that. And, you know, I'd say, okay. By this time, though, Matthews' admiring neighbors in Monarch Summit had gotten a look at this. This is the information that was actually dropped in my neighbor's mailbox. Someone who recognized Matt was spreading the lurid details of his criminal past throughout the neighborhood.

8:05This is a mug shot that dates clear back to 1977. Their golden boy was a con man. We were floored. Mr. Wonderful didn't seem so wonderful anymore. He conned everybody. He makes a fool of you. Deanna Petrucco had no idea she was being conned until, out of the blue... I got that faithful call from Jerry Franklin. That changed my life. Jerry Franklin is a deputy district attorney in Santa Barbara. He prosecuted Matt Matthews for grand theft more than 20 years ago. His advice to Deanna? You should get a lawyer, and you should go to the police. But why is a prosecutor some 150 miles away so determined to see this character from his past brought to justice?

8:49Well, it has everything to do with the fact that he is doing it again. Part of the answer lies in the heartbreaking tales Franklin has heard over the years from Matthews' victims, like ex-wife Carrie Rogers. This is Matt? Yeah. And her sons, Michael and Jason. This guy's good. He knows how to get in. And once he gets in, he can do a lot of damage. Their story, when 48 Hours continues.

9:27How could a man make a career out of taking something like love and making it so trivial?

9:40There he is. Did you arrive early? Your little brother was late as usual. For Carrie Rogers and her two sons, Mike and Jason, these photos from the summer of 1976 bring back long buried memories of some of the happiest and the most painful moments of their lives. This is Matt? Yeah. Matt and I. That was the year Matt Matthews came along and swept all three of them off their feet. What was the situation when Matt Matthews walked into your life? My situation was pretty bad. I was a single mother. I wasn't getting any child support. So in order for us to survive, I was working a minimum of 10 hours a day.

10:29And my boys were left pretty much on their own. Jason was just 7, Mike 15. And then Matt came along. All of a sudden, here's this man who's not only charming and sweet and loving towards me, but thinks my children are just wonderful and wants to spend time with them. At the time you met him, did he have a job? No, he told me that he was the beneficiary of a trust fund, so he didn't have to work. And his hobby was driving race cars. For Matt, it was a typically speedy courtship. Within a few months, they were married. I went to work and he stayed home and took care of the boys. I felt like a real kid who had a dad.

11:11For Mike and Jason, Matt was the father they had always longed for. He just had it all. He had all the passion that a father is supposed to have. And even more. And to be a race car driver too was so much more exciting than anything I'd ever known. That's a kid having fun. That's a kid in love. Oh, definitely. Gosh. The magic of that summer lasted through August in a three-week camping trip. We covered like six western states. But when the family came home, the spell was abruptly broken. We came back, and there's all of these messages to find out what's going on. Why aren't we getting payments?

11:49It turned out that the husband, who claimed to be living off a trust fund, actually had been using Carrie's credit behind her back, and he owed money to stores all over town. How much money are we talking about? It eventually totaled over$20 ,000. Carrie demanded that Matthews pay back the money. When he refused, I wanted to stop him. she had him arrested. That's when Santa Barbara Deputy DA Jerry Franklin first got him in his sights. That was something he was going to use in a courtship display. Franklin started asking questions about Matt Matthews' courtships. What did you learn about him as you went along?

12:25Well, he kept every name and address that he had written down for the past 10 or 15 years in these two little address books. Why he didn't trash them, I don't know, but I don't know why Nixon didn't burn the tapes. He made some phone calls. I'd ask them if they knew Matt Matthews, and their words were usually something like, know him, let me tell you about him. And they did. Many of them, in fact, had married him. What did he tell you about his marital status? That he had never been married. Never ever? Never, never, ever. Never found the right woman. What did you find out later? That he probably had seven or eight marriages before me.

13:01Not only was Carrie wife number eight. He would leave one woman and go marry another, and so a good many of his marriages were bigamists, sometimes two or three times over. The whole situation infuriated Jerry Franklin, who doggedly pursued victim after victim, and in 1977 persuaded five more women besides Carrie Rogers to press charges. Every moment that he spent in California was spent stealing from someone or setting up a theft to be committed. The specific charges against him, theft by false pretense, a form of fraud. Why is this a crime? What's the fraud? The fraud is making representations about yourself, your ability to repay.

13:42How did he represent himself? Just period. A set of variety of things. He was an heir to the Goodyear tire fortune. Oh. Franklin says all the women had heard the same stories, that he had an inheritance, the money, alas, tied up in a family squabble, that he raced professionally and needed cash to get ready for the season. He had all the props and it looked so real. But none of it was real. Matt Matthews finally pled guilty to grand theft and began serving a two-year sentence. When it was over with, I eventually found a way to make the financial problems go away. I had to declare bankruptcy. But the emotional turmoil afterwards, how do you fix something like that?

14:27How do you make it all better? Did you love him like a father? Yeah, yeah, I did. Do you remember a moment when you realized this isn't real? I remember him just being gone one day and that was it. That was the last time I saw him. For me, going back to my own father, I didn't feel like I was worth enough, like I wasn't wanted, that I was abandoned again. This guy's good. He knows how to get in. And once he gets in, he can do a lot of damage. But that was not the end of Mr. Wonderful. Even as he went off to jail, there was a new woman waiting for him. I believe that it was all some kind of a mistake, you know.

15:09I wanted it to be a mistake. Diane McEwen learned it was not a mistake. I lost everything, and I was devastated. Now, after 20 years, she's hoping to come face-to-face with the man who betrayed her. Hey, Matt. Next.

15:38I thought he was out of my life in every respect. Today, Diane McEwen is on her way to watch Matt Matthews go on trial. I'll meet her at the courthouse. For breaking the hearts and bank accounts of Deanna Petrucco and seven other women. I'm a little bit excited. For me, it feels like I'm putting a little closure on something that's been open for a long time. Because 20 years ago, Matt Matthews shattered her world. I'm a little nervous. I would like to just look him in the eye and tell him the effect that he's had on my life. Not that I think it makes any difference to him. He took everything I had and walked away and left me there and never looked back.

16:18I'm glad my sister's meeting me here. Hi, Sam. Thanks for coming. Are you surprised that more than 20 years later you find yourself still talking about this guy? Absolutely. I could not believe it. He tells new girlfriends lies to impress them. I got a call from my sister and then this modern Don Juan steals money from them. She said go turn on the television. Matt's on. And there he was. Actually he looked pretty good. Still doing it. women involved, women putting up his bail, women holding his hand. In the clip I saw on television, I could see him looking at this woman and letting her know she was special, she was different.

17:02And you know, a month or a year from now, eventually she's going to be another story. Poor thing. Just another chapter. Back when Matthews was on trial in Santa Barbara in 1977, Diane was the girlfriend holding his hand. I can remember when I used to walk into the courthouse, he used to wink at me. Even as she heard the overwhelming evidence against him. I believe that it was all some kind of a mistake. Of crimes against his eighth wife, Carrie, and other women. I wanted it to be a mistake. Diane believed in Matt. I had an investment in him being a certain person, and I did not want to see anything that didn't fit in with that picture.

17:40And what was that picture? Well, he told me that he was a race car driver. Sound familiar? That he had money that was tied up in a trust fund. He was also a mechanic for exotic cars. Now he was a prison inmate, but Diane was waiting. You waited for him? Yes. For 18 months? Yes. Did you have any doubts? No. None? None. And he kept telling me, you know, I've been involved with a lot of women in my life. I've made a lot of mistakes, but, you know, I want you to know that I really love you, and you've made such a difference in my life. And my heart wanted to hear those things. You know, I always wanted to make a difference in somebody's life, and that's what I felt like I was doing.

18:20Two months after Matt was released, they married. And I became Diane Matthews, and I was just on top of the world. This is a very nice picture. That's me, and that's Matt. When you were talking about the early days with him, your face lights up. I mean, you were in love. Yes. You really loved this guy. I really did. And they had ambitious plans for the future. He talked me into refinancing my property and building on it. But as construction began, Diane got the first hint that things were not what they seemed. Two of my very good friends that I work with said, you know, Diane, we've got to talk to you.

18:56Her friends told her what Matt really was doing each night when he said he was at work. I went back home and I called this maintenance station where he told me he was working. Well, they'd never heard of him. I had been packing his lunch for him to go to work and he was going over and staying with another woman. Almost as soon as she discovered Matt was cheating on her, she discovered he also was writing checks to himself. The contractors now are asking me for money for things that I thought had been paid, and when I went to the bank, there was no money. Diane's life collapsed. I couldn't hold on to my house.

19:27And she couldn't have her husband arrested for using up their joint account. But she could and did file for divorce. So you were left literally with nothing at all? I was living on the charity of friends. She admits, though, that even then... I kept thinking that somehow or other this was all going to get straightened out. You're in the process of getting a divorce from this guy. I was in the process of getting a divorce. He's completely taken everything you own in the world. Right. And you still believe him. I still believe. Only after years of hard work did Diane get her life back together. Where?

20:01Where was she admitted? Her experience inspired her to become a mental health nurse. I'm sure I need some help with some benefits. and she recently received her master's degree in psychology. Well, there he is. Oh, he definitely did not look. He was looking down. Obviously just had his hair cut, and he's very spruced up, ready for his big day. It's a day in court that Diane herself was deprived of 20 years ago. Is this vengeance? Is this vindication? What is this? Well, not, I suppose, vindication more than vengeance. You know, I don't have a lot of anger anymore. I would just like my last picture of him in my mind as I close the door.

20:42Him going off to jail, I think it's rather fitting. That will be up to a jury. Our cameras aren't allowed in the courtroom for jury selection, but Diane is. Hey, Matt. But if Diane was hoping for an apology, she's disappointed again. No smile, no nothing. He doesn't really have any feelings. I truly believe that. Still, her strongest feelings today aren't about him, but about his other victims, past, present, and future. You know, there was a part of me, I'd kind of like to say something to Jane Jones, the woman that he's with now, and just say, you know what, I waited for two years for him to get out of prison.

21:26We were going to start life new, and he was going to make all this up to me, and, you know, eight months later, I was in bankruptcy. But you know what? Then I thought, she doesn't really want to hear it. I mean, she's where she is now. I've been there.

21:41Later, Matt Matthews faces his latest victims in court. He was a hazmat specialist, a military pilot. He had to eject out of a plane twice. But first... He did lose his mother at a young age. Why would this man choose to live a life of total deception? Our mother was his stability. The Making of a Con Man, next.

22:18How did Matt Matthews, the man known as Mr. Wonderful, meet many of the women that he romanced and then deceived? well, often it would begin harmlessly enough with casual conversation, small talk in coffee houses and the like, respectable establishments. But then quickly, there would be some very big talk from Matthews about plans for a future together. Only he had very different plans for all these women all along. But now the tables could be turned for some of his victims. In a moment, you'll see and hear if they get their revenge in court. But first, consider the mind of this career con man.

22:59A man who can love him and leave him and never look back. Here again is Susan Spencer. Matt is kind of the lemon on the used car lot of love. Investigations, Wannitzer. In the 35 years that Walt Wannitzer has been a private investigator... You know, you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs. He's hunted down his share of con men. but says he's never met one quite like Matt Matthews. There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of women and businesses that have been flim-flam by Matt Matthews. Walt's had plenty of time to become an expert on Matt's M.O. Matt is a gift that keeps on taking.

23:43After all, he's been in his tail on and off for 17 years. Morning, Bonnie. How are you this morning? Matt has been an inexhaustible supply of victims and therefore some clients for me over the years. Gentlemen, my name's Walt Zwanis. You may be the only person around who's actually made money off of Matt Matt. It's nice to meet you. That's a fact. Walt's involvement in Matt's escapades began in 1981. The marriage to Diane McEwen was over and Matt, it seems, wasted no time finding new victims. I was just in my office one day and a widowed school teacher came in and said that her fiancé had disappeared with her Corvette and some money.

24:26The missing man, of course, was Matt Matthews. We found out that he was a con artist. And as Walt investigated... Under every rock was another victim. His jail term in Santa Barbara hadn't changed him at all. Before it was through, there was probably 15 or 20 victims. If anything, Matt had refined his technique. He borrowed that suit, took the other guy's name off of it, and put his name on it. Thanks in part to Walt, Matthews landed in jail for theft two more times, in 1983 and 1990. Most of the victims, as usual, were women. But Matthews even conned a bicycle company into donating an expensive bike to a child dying of leukemia.